Travel Tips

Golden Gate Park offers more than just a Play Date

With its moderate temperatures year round, San Francisco is one of the best cities in the world in which to go outside and play. No matter what time of year it is, there is probably something you can find to do outside that is a lot of fun. Even if it is just “Singing in the Rain”. Beyond singing of course, there are plenty of activities that are best enjoyed out of doors. And there are few places in the world better to enjoy these outdoor activities than Golden Gate Park.

If you like wheels, there are plenty of places in the park where you can either rent biking and skating equipment. Of course if you plan on skating, it is quite easy to bring your own equipment along on your vacation. If you have children and are looking for fun activities that you can enjoy together, these are among the top on my list. Of course there are several more that you will find at Golden Gate Park as well.

I can keep my kids occupied for hours with one little Frisbee tossed between the three of them. And there are plenty of open spaces in this great park where Frisbee tossing is quite possible. In addition to Frisbee there are several other outdoor activities that can be enjoyed by you or your family.

There is an archery field and a shop where you can rent all the equipment you will need. In addition to equipment, which can be purchased or rented, you can also buy lessons for that equipment as well. If this is something you’ve never tried before, you should at least stop by and take a look. I think it’s a great sport that is incredibly fun for young and old alike. It’s also something that isn’t as commonly found as it should be so may actually be a real treat for your children.

If you love the water as I do, you will be delighted to find that in addition to beaches which offer surfing and sea animal watching, there is a huge lake in the park which offers paddleboat and row boat rentals. This is good fun and clean living if you ask me. Of course, I’m a water baby so I’m a little biased.

If water isn’t your thing, have you ever tried swing dancing? If not, it’s time you considered Lindy in the Park. Every Sunday, weather permitting, there is swing dancing from 11:00 am -2:00 pm with free lessons offered at 12:30 pm. Young and old children alike get a real thrill out of this and it’s a great way to trick yourself into exercising. Lindy in the Park is completely free and a lot of fun. If you are planning to include a trip to Golden Gate Park in your San Francisco visit, I strongly urge you to plan it for Sunday and plan to attend Lindy in the Park.

In addition to these activities there are handball tables both indoors and outdoors that can be used for a quick game. If this is something that you find interesting you might want to stake out a spot close by because there are only a few tables and a great deal of interest. Other interesting activities in Golden Gate Park include lawn bowling, tennis, dog runs, basketball, and disc golf. .

If all of that isn’t enough there are several other sites and activities available throughout the park that should spark your interest. Among those is a favorite for young and old children alike–The 1912 Herschel-Spillman carousel. This is very popular among children and seconded closely by the nearby playground. If you think about it, a day at Golden Gate Park isn’t your typical day at the park. With so much to do and see, it is hard to imagine that a day at this park isn’t a vacation in and of itself.

If you’ve never been to New York City, you may be surprised to know that there is so much more to this great city than skyscrapers, lots of people, and really fantastic parades. While it is in fact the wonderful people of this city that make it the exciting place to visit that it has become, there is so much more to this city than what you’ll see on the television shows and in the news.

New York City is a city full of exciting people from all kinds of backgrounds with all kinds of hopes and dreams of the future and experiences of the past. You will find artwork here like few other places in the world, you will see more nature here than in most big cities around the world, and you will enjoy seeing more cultures and nationalities represented in the space of an hour in this city than most people who live elsewhere experience in their entire lives. New York City is the true melting pot of the world and the rest of America is simply trying to catch up.

You will find music and art that is representative of the many cultures that call this grand city home. You will experience the sights, sounds, and scents of worlds that are exotic and foreign simply by walking down neighborhood streets where people are cooking dinner at night. You will hear more languages in one day than you probably ever dreamed imagine and while you may stand around with sensory overload thinking anyone would be crazy to live like this, most of them are looking at you thinking you’d be crazy to live anywhere else.

This is perhaps the greatest thing about visiting New York City. You get to experience for a moment the excitement that comes from living in this fascinating city. You get to understand what it is like for those living there. And you get to understand first hand what it is like to be alone in a city of millions and yet by being there, being one of them, belonging somehow to this giant community of strangers from different cultures, different pasts, and different futures.

Most people visit New York with certain preconceived ideas and certain goals for their visits. Hopefully the preconceived ideas will all be challenged and the plans that you have made are flexible. There is so much to do and see that you could go one block each way from your hotel and probably notice something new each and every single time you went by. My point in this is that you need to leave time to experience the wonderful things you won’t discover in the guidebooks. There is only so much of this city that any one person could possibly find to write about. I can imagine that there are New Yorkers that could eat in a different restaurant each and every day without eating in the same one twice in five or ten years. I find it hard to believe that a guide book is going to be able to hold everything you might find interesting in this city and if you spend your entire visit with your head in the book you might miss something truly worthwhile.

That being said, it is a good idea to make plans according to your budget and the things you wish to see, I’m just urging you to leave room in that schedule for change. The Statue of Liberty is great, but it takes a while to get there and back. Could it be that you take some photos, buy some post cards and do two or three other activities that you could have enjoyed in the space of time it takes to get there and back? Plans are made to change whenever possible-especially while on vacation. I seriously recommend that you reserve two hours minimum each day to do something that you discovered rather than something you planned.

New York is a treasure trove of so many things that it is quite difficult to select one thing to mention when discussing this wonderful city. If you are a natural born shopper and bargain hunter though you would be remiss not to head out to New York with the idea of finding some fabulous bargains in mind.

I can’t imagine many places in the world that have quite the number of shopping options that are available to New Yorkers on a daily basis. It’s hard to imagine that there are people who actually have never felt the thrill of getting that little extra percent off or finding a perfectly good second hand piece for less than a quarter of what that item would have cost new. At the same time, there are very few things that I can mentally justify paying full price for.

Perhaps this is why New York represents shopper’s heaven to me. There are so many consignment stores, used clothes stores, vintage clothes stores, and the bargains don’t end at clothing. There is consignment furniture, house wares, even tools can be found at bargain prices in very specialized consignment and second hand stores. Electronics and appliances can be found in these types of stores as well. It’s truly amazing all the wonderful things that can be found at bargain basement prices by those who are truly willing to look for them.

In addition to the many consignment, second hand, and goodwill type stores that you can find in New York City, there are also plenty of outlet stores that offer lower prices for last years overstock or slightly flawed patterns. It’s amazing the bargains you can find when these stores have sales. Of course shopping your regular shopping malls just after Christmas or a couple of weeks after school has started can also net some very similar values. The real beauty lies in the fact that you can actually go to these stores while these sales are going on and have wardrobes for your kids for the next school year (provided some unholy sort of abnormal growth spurt doesn’t occur in the meantime).

If shopping for you is more like a calling than an adventure then you should have a great time just wandering around the many malls and shopping centers of New York trying to get into your head the close proximity of so many wonderful bargains and how everyone in that city isn’t either filing for bankruptcy or in serious hoc due to credit cards that are spent well beyond their limits.

Of course my kryptonite is shoes. I have a very difficult time walking by a sale on shoes even when I know the price isn’t as good as it could or should be. I love shoes, particularly Birkenstock’s. You simply cannot buy Birkenstock’s second hand and even the sales prices on these shoes are more than you’d pay for many at full retail. I once thought they were the ugliest shoes on the planet and while I’ll agree they aren’t the cutest they are quite arguably the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn. If you ever notice a really good sale on shoes and a brunette whirlwind rushing by, it’s probably me chanting ’see no evil, speak no evil, do no evil’ and trying to convince myself that there really is nothing to see here.